Playing to the Gallery: Helping Contemporary Art in Its Struggle to Be Understood, Hardcover

Grayson Perry's book will overturn everything you thought you knew about "art"

Now Grayson Perry is a fully paid-up member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he's called this book Playing to the Gallery and not Sucking Up to the Academic Elite). This funny, personal journey through the art world answers the basic questions that might occur to us in an art gallery but that we're too embarrassed to ask. Questions such as: What is "good" or "bad" art--and does it even matter? Is art still capable of shocking us or have we seen it all before? And what happens if you place a piece of art in a rubbish dump?

About the Author:

GRAYSON PERRY's first art prize was a large papier-m ch head he awarded to himself as part of a performance art project at college in 1980. Since then he has won many other awards, including the Turner Prize in 2003. He is now one of Britain's most celebrated artists and has had major solo exhibitions all over the world. His 2013 BBC Reith Lectures were the most popular lectures since the series began. He won a BAFTA for his Channel 4 documentary on the creation of six new tapestries entitled 'The Vanity of Small Differences, All in the Best Possible Taste', for which he was also awarded Best Presenter at the Grierson British Documentary Awards.